The two final First Stage Qualifiers of DP World Tour Q-School have reached day two and Liam Nolan made a big move up the leaderboard in Denmark to take a share of the halfway lead.
The Galway man fired a three-under 67 on day one and backed it up by going two-strokes lower on day two, but it was far from plain sailing in the early stages as he bogeyed two of the first five holes. A birdie on his sixth – the 15th – kickstarted the round and he reeled off seven birdies in the next 16 holes to move to -8 and join a three-way tie for the lead.
Max Kennedy had been two off the first-round lead with a six-under, but having made a birdie and an eagle and turned at -3 for the day, a horror back-nine saw him make two double bogeys, a bogey and just the one birdie. Nevertheless, at -5 and in 10th place, he remains on course to take one of the cards on offer to the first 18 and ties after four rounds.
As is Mark Power, who backed up his opening 67 with a one-under 69 to sit on four-under, tied for 12th.
Athenry’s David Kitt has made the 36-hole cut, but he lies tied for 44th at +2 and will need to go low over the final two rounds if he’s to muscle his way into the qualification places.
Meanwhile, at Golf de Lery Poses in Normandy, a disrupted first day means that, of the four Irish in action, only Tim Rice has managed to complete 36 holes and he lies tied for 55th at +2 after back-to-back one-over 73s.
Ronan Mullarney was the best of the Irish after day one at -1 and he currently lies tied for 27th with most of round two yet to complete, as does Conor O’Rourke on +1 and Jack Madden on +4. with the top 21 and ties advancing to Stage Two.
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